The featured speaker at this year’s Petersburg Medical Center health fair is ultra-runner Carol Seppilu of Nome. She survived a suicide attempt when she was 16 and has turned to running as a tool for battling depression. Seppilu has talked about that journey on The Moth, Alaska Public Media and in other podcasts and newspaper articles. She often wears a mask to cover her injury and breaths through a permanent tracheostomy from her self-inflicted gunshot wound.
When she first started running, says it was hard for her to make it a few blocks without getting out of breath. Now she finishes races of 50 and even 100 miles. To get ready she goes on training runs when it’s as cold as 60 below.
Joe Viechnicki spoke with Seppilu this week about the talk she’ll be giving.
The next challenges for Seppilu are a 52-kilometer run at Lake Tahoe, California and a 100 miler at Leadville, Colorado this summer.
She’ll be giving her talk “Tragedy to Trails” twice Saturday, June 4, 2022 at the Petersburg Medical Center health fair. The first is at 11:30 a.m. in the Parks and Recreation activity room for teens, young adults and families and then again at 1:30 p.m. in the Wright Auditorium for the general public.
If you or anyone you know is thinking about suicide, there’s round the clock help on Alaska’s toll free hotline for help is 877-266-4357. There’s also more information and resources at here.
